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Then There Were Three
1963 is the year the Beatles take the pop world by storm. It is year when Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield make their chart débuts. It is also the year when Lyn Paul takes her first steps towards stardom ...
From a young age Lyn wanted to be a singer, though as she told a TV audience in 1974, she nearly decided on an alternative career:
"It was about three months before I took my 'Eleven Plus' and I decided that if I was lucky enough to pass my 'Eleven Plus', which I wasn't, that I'd be an air-hostess ... I thought: 'that's it! I'm going to get the blue uniform, I'm going to fly, I'm going to see the world'. But I didn't pass so I couldn't be an air-hostess. So I went back to singing. I thought: 'no, I'll stick to what I was going to do originally'."
(Val Meets The VIPs, 6th December 1974, BBC1)
In 1963, having read an article in Romeo magazine which highlighted the dearth of women singers on the pop scene, Lyn decides to do something about it. She approaches friends at the Joan Lawrence Dancing School in Wythenshawe and forms an all-girl trio called the Chrys-Do-Lyns - fifteen-year-old Christine Lowe, sixteen-year-old Doreen Jones and fourteen-year-old Lynda Susan Belcher.
Showbiz here we come!
The Chrys-Do-Lyns
featuring (left to right) Lynda Belcher (Lyn Paul),
Doreen Jones and Christine Lowe.
 
By 1963 girl trios had become all the rage. The Shirelles had made an impact on the charts as early as 1961 with Will You Love Me Tomorrow. The Crystals followed in '62 with He's A Rebel and did even better in '63 with Da Doo Ron Ron and Then He Kissed Me. The Chiffons joined them in the charts with He's So Fine and One Fine Day, while the Angels also had a minor hit with My Boyfriend's Back. With these American acts leading the way, the Chrys-Do-Lyns join a growing number of UK imitators such as the Vernons Girls and the Orchids.
The Chrys-Do-Lyns first stage appearance (at the Wythenshawe Labour Club) is a disaster. Arriving for the show without any "dots" for the musicians but armed instead with a tape recorder, the girls go on stage to find that neither they nor the audience can hear the backing tape. But the show must go on! The girls sing, the audience applaud and the tape carries on playing! Having only prepared one song, there is further embarrassment when they are then asked to sing another. The girls rush to the Ladies loo, run through the words of a second song and return to the stage 15 minutes later! Writing about the incident years later in a Fan Club Newsletter, Lyn's sister Mandi said:
"Mum and dad, Aunty Joyce and Uncle Ron went to give moral support. Doreen and Chris had their hair pinned on top of their heads, Lyn's thick pony tail hanging down her back. Mum said there was no sophistication there, just three raw school girls."
Incidentally ...
In an interview in 2007 Lyn Paul recalled an incident from 1963: "When I was a kid in Manchester my parents told me to pop out and buy them a record. They wanted 'I Remember You' by Frank Ifield. When I got to the store, a friend of mine said 'Have you heard the new one by The Beatles?' and I listened, and I bought that instead. Very naughty! My parents were a bit surprised when I took it home. But they grew to love it as well!" The Beates record in question? Please, Please Me, which entered the UK singles chart on 24th January and made it to number 2. And at number 1? Frank Ifield! (Doncaster Free Press, 17th April 2007)
| In the News - 1963 |
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| Jan |
George Wallace becomes Governor of Alabama on 14th January, proclaiming during his inaugural speech: "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
The leader of the UK Labour Party, Hugh Gaitskell, dies on 18th January, aged 56.
Kim Philby, a former British diplomat working in Beirut, disappears on Wednesday, 23rd January.
Negotiations for Britain's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) end in failure. On 29th January Britain is refused entry by a French veto. President de Gaulle says Britain is "not yet ready" to join the Common Market.
The US poet Robert Frost dies in Boston, Massachusetts on 29th January, aged 88.
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| Feb |
Poet Sylvia Plath commits suicide on 11th February.
Harold Wilson becomes the new leader of the Labour Party on 14th February.
On the same day the first kidney transplant is successfully carried out at Leeds General Infirmary.
Sir Keith Joseph, the UK's Minister of Housing, announces to the House of Commons on 19th February that new towns will be built near to Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham to help speed up the slum clearance programmes in these cities.
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| Mar |
Patsy Cline is killed in an air crash on 5th March.
On 22nd March the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, tells fellow MPs that there was "no impropriety whatsoever" in his relationship with model Christine Keeler.
On 27th March the Beeching Report is published, recommending the closure of over 2,000 railway stations in the UK.
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| Apr |
On 5th April, at a disarmament conference in Geneva, the Russians and the Americans agree to establish a direct telephone link between the Kremlin and the White House. The link is set up on 20th June.
On 8th April Lawrence Of Arabia wins seven Oscars.
President Kennedy proclaims Sir Winston Churchill an honorary citizen of the USA at a ceremony at the White House on 9th April.
Lester Pearson becomes Prime Minister of Canada on 22nd April, following a general election on 8th April and the resignation of John Diefenbaker on 17th April.
The Cuban Prime Minister, Fidel Castro, arrives in Moscow on 28th April for a month-long visit to the USSR.
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| May |
The UK government places orders for four Polaris submarines - two to be built by Cammel Laird in Birkenhead and two by Vickers-Armstrong in Barrow.
President Kennedy sends in the troops following race riots in Birmingham, Alabama.
10,000 people are killed when a cyclone hits East Pakistan.
Blues guitarist Elmore James dies from a heart attack on 23rd May, aged 45.
At a summit conference in Addis Ababa, which ends on 25th May, the leaders of 32 African nations agree to found the Organisation of African Unity.
On Monday, 27th May Jomo Kenyatta is elected Prime Minister of Kenya in the country's first multi-racial elections. He is sworn into office on 1st June.
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| Jun |
Pope John XXIII dies on 3rd June, aged 81.
On 4th June War Minister John Profumo admits that he has lied about his relationship with Christine Keeler and resigns from the Government.
On Sunday, 16th June Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman and the fifth Soviet cosmonaut to travel in space.
The Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, is elected as the new Pope on 21st June. He takes the title Pope Paul VI.
On Wednesday, 26th June, while on a visit to West Berlin, President Kennedy makes a speech criticising Communism and the construction of the Berlin Wall: "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in." To demonstrate his solidarity with the citizens of West Berlin he declares: "Ich bin ein Berliner."
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| Jul |
The British government admits that former Foreign Office civil servant Harold "Kim" Philby was the "third man" in the Burgess and MacLean spy scandal. Missing since January, Philby had reappeared in Moscow on 30th July, where he was granted asylum.
Protesters greet the King and Queen of Greece on their State visit to London. 94 people are arrested.
The Malta independence conference opens in London on 16th July.
On 25th July the UK, USA and Russia initial a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests, except those underground. President de Gaulle makes it known at a press conference on 29th July that France will not be bound by the test ban.
The Profumo affair continues to make the headlines. On 31st July Dr. Stephen Ward takes a fatal overdose. He dies on 3rd August.
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| Aug |
The test ban treaty is formally signed on 5th August.
What becomes known as the "Great Train Robbery" takes place on 8th August.
A new television pop show Ready, Steady, Go! is launched on 9th August, hosted by Cathy McGowan and Keith Fordyce.
Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on 28th August.
On Friday, 30th August, in response to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, a Teletype 'hotline' is set up linking Washington and Moscow.
Georges Braque dies in Paris on 31st August.
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| Sep |
Ronnie Biggs, one of the Great Train robbers, is arrested on 4th September.
The American Express card is launched in the UK on 10th September.
On 15th September four black schoolgirls are killed and 22 injured in a Ku Klux Klan bomb attack on the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
On 18th September the British Embassy in Jakarta is burned by rioters demonstrating against the Malaysia union, established just two days earlier.
On the same day the United Nations imposes trade sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa.
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| Oct |
Nigeria becomes a republic on 1st October.
More than 6,000 people are killed when a hurricane hits the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Haiti.
Edith Piaf dies on 12th October.
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan resigns on 18th October. Lord Home, who renounces his title to become Sir Alex Douglas Home, is the new Prime Minister.
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| Nov |
The Beatles appear on the Royal Variety Show on 4th November, which is remembered as much for John Lennon's much-quoted remark as it is for the Beatles' performance: "Those of you in the cheaper seats clap, the rest of you rattle your jewellery."
On 22nd November US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated while travelling through the streets of Dallas in an open-top car. Earlier in the day psychic Jean Dixon had predicted: "Something dreadful is going to happen to the President today." Vice-President Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as the new President.
Aldous Huxley dies on the same day.
Lee Harvey Oswald, the man charged with the murder of President Kennedy, is shot dead on 24th November while being taken to the county jail. Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner, is charged with Oswald's murder.
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| Dec |
Kenya celebrates its independence on 12th December.
Dinah Washington dies from a drug overdose on 14th December, aged 39.
The Berlin Wall is opened on Friday, 20th December for the first time since it was erected in 1961, allowing West Berliners a day to visit friends and family in the Eastern sector.
128 people are killed on 22nd December by a fire aboard the Atlantic cruise liner Lakonia.
British troops are flown to Cyprus on 26th December following clashes between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
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Remember then?
Send an e-postcard celebrating the Sixties by clicking on this image.
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Who said that?
Careers Advice
You can have anything you want - if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.
William Adams
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Sally Berger
Don't spend your life trying to please those who won't cry at your funeral.
Gerald Brooks
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you'll land among the stars.
Les Brown
Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.
Dr. David M. Burns
Always take a job that is too big for you.
Harry Emerson Fosdick
The ultimate goal should be doing your best and enjoying it.
Peggy Fleming
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
Judy Garland
If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting.
Katharine Hepburn
In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.
Henry Miller
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt
You're going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you've got to start going there. But immediately. You can't afford to lose a minute.
J. D. Salinger
There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.
Logan Pearsall Smith, 'Afterthoughts'
Keep high aspirations, moderate expectations, and small needs.
William Howard Stein
If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.
Denis Waitley, 'Seeds Of Greatness'
The best careers advice to give the young is 'Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it'.
Katherine Whitehorn
Destiny
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
William Jennings Bryan
Explore. Dream. Discover.
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
James Truslow Adams
Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.
Alan Alda
One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world - making the most of one's best.
Richard Willard Armour
Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.
James Arthur Baldwin
Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances.
Bruce Barton
When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either.
Leo Burnett
The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.
Mark Caine
Dream as if you'll live forever ...
Live as if you'll die today.
James Dean
He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.
Dr. Thomas Fuller
Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blue prints of your ultimate accomplishments.
Napolean Hill
There are dreams of love, life, and adventure in all of us. But we are also sadly filled with reasons why we shouldn't try. These reasons seem to protect us, but in truth they imprison us. They hold life at a distance. Life will be over sooner than we think. If we have bikes to ride and people to love, now is the time.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Life's too short for wastin',
For ifs and might've beens,
Life's too short for wondering
If you could've lived your dreams.
L. Moran, D. Carton, B. Dooley, P. Doherty
The Saw Doctors, 'Share the Darkness'
If you want to touch the other shore badly enough, barring an impossible situation, you will. If your desire is diluted for any reason, you'll never make it.
Diana Nyad
We must never be afraid to go too far, for success lies just beyond.
Marcel Proust
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
Carl Sandburg
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on.
William Shakespeare, 'The Tempest' (Act IV, Scene I)
Never follow somebody else's path; it doesn't work the same way twice for anyone ... the path follows you and rolls up behind you as you walk, forcing the next person to find their own way.
J. Michael Straczynski
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
Paul Ambroise Valery
If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.
If you can dream it, you can become it.
William Arthur Wood
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